AFTER years as an economic basket case, China is in the throes of an industrial revolution - fuelled by cheap labour.

With an economy growing at nine per cent a year, it's now the fifthlargest exporter on the planet.

From buttons to bow ties, coats to computer chips, the country now specialises in mass-produced goods sold the world over. Last year, 80 per cent of all consumer electronics were made there.

Today, whole Chinese cities are devoted to making one product - including condoms, zips, bras, taps and toilets.

Although Chinese culture dates back 5,000 years, its economic potential was held back by internal feuding. It wasn't until the country was taken over by Mao's communists in 1949 that modern China was born. While his economic management was a disaster, Mao united the country and laid the foundations for modern-day China.

The powerhouse of the economic miracle lies in the country's factories, where 150 million workers - many of them from impoverished rural areas - manufacture goods to be exported to the West.